Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Express trip under the shadow of Mayon & Bulusan volcanoes

Note: This photo-essay appeared in the 06-12 Jun issue of the FilAm Star, 'the newspaper for Filipinos in mainstream America,' published weekly in San Francisco, CA, This author/blogger is the paper's Special News/Photo Correspondent in the Philippines.

Mount Mayon from the left side of the Daraga Church. Woman figure shows her carrying red sili, said to be the Bicolano's favorite spice.

Our first option was to take the Bicol Express to Legazpi
City, Albay, and the return trip on board one of the deluxe sleeper buses that
ply the Maharlika Highway non-stop to Manila.

We did not know that the Philippine National Railways had
cancelled all train services “due to ongoing repairs” and, as they implored, for
us to bear with them until the Mayon Limited and the Bicol Express get running
again. For now, it’s only their Metro
Commuter that keeps their choo-choo of “a storied past, a challenging present,
and connections to the future” chugging along the railsfrom Tutuban to Laguna. PNR,
in fact, has not deleted their press release about resuming their Bicol runs
“starting March 16, 2012.”

Thus, we flew to Legazpi, taking advantage of the budget
promo of one local airline company. Our destination actually was barangay
Tongdol of Irosin, Sorsogon to represent the family in a civil wedding. This
would formalize a union that has already borne the marrying couple two young
sons. The thirtyish groom was our personal driver more than a decade ago.

Bulusan Volcano from the wedding venue in Tongdol, Irosin, Sorsogon.

A very dear fraternity brother working in the city was
off for the weekend with his family in Pio Duran. He lent us his service vehicle and his driver
for our Bicol sojourn. He also gave us
the key to his house in Daraga where we had a good sleep before the long haul
to Irosin in the morning.

The driver knows the Bicol road system like the back of
his palm, which made zipping through the Albay and Sorsogon towns under the
shadow Mayon and Bulusan volcanoes, respectively, hassle-free and very relaxing
. He cued us on the interesting places
we should see along the way, and he’d ask every now and then if we’d like to
stop at what he thinks are beautiful sights to capture with our camera.

We departed Daraga after the Sunday morning mass at the
antique town church. We took the
national highway up to Sorsogon City.
Since we would be stopping by Bulusan Lake, he went another way, the
coastal road that strings the town of Bacon, Prieto Diaz, Gubat, Barcelona, and
Bulusan, from where we veered toward Irosin, the only inland town of Sorsogon,
after cooling off at Bulusan Lake. All in all, we traversed around 160 kms of
paved roads, some parts gravelly, with thick, lush green plants on our right,
and the blue of Albay Gulf and the Pacific Ocean on the left. There were portions where we drove under the
canopy of branches of trees planted on both sides of the road. There was one
instance when we stopped by the beach to chat with children enjoying the
ankle-deep ocean waters at low tide.

Transporting pamaypay to the market (left). Pamaypay in various colors (right).

Fans, hats and
sleeping mats. Before hitting
Sorsogon, we passed through barangay Bascaran of Daraga, where many hauling trucks
were waiting to load, or were being loaded with Bicol region’s iconic handicraft
products: pamaypay (fans), kalo (hats) and banig (sleeping mats).

Bicol is endowed with indigenous flora for the raw
materials of handicraft makers: karagumoy (Pandanus
simplex) for hats, bags and mats; anahaw
(Livistonia rotundifolia) for fans;
and buri (Corypha) for hats.

What caught our fancy were the fans painted in several
colors. We talked to one seller who actually collects from the weavers their unpainted
products, which he then paints following the orders of the bulk buyers. We learned from him that the demand could go
as high as 10,000 pieces during the peak season.

Nature tripping. Rising 7,500 feet above sea level, Mayon
Volcano was a looming presence during our tour of the Legazpi City and nearby Albay
towns. It was the picturesque greeting card we saw from the window as the
airplane descended for landing. The sky
was cloudless when we arrived; it was truly magayon (the Bicol word for beautiful) and passengers couldn’t help
but pause for a selfie with the nearly perfect cone as background.

Bulusan Lake.

We noted that Bulusan is a hot subject these days. The
volcano is not about to rumble and blow its top. The grumbling is from the
anti-geothermal groups in the neigboring communities. We noted opposition to
tap geothermal steam in the area for electric power.

Bulusan volcano is
not as high and majestic as Mayon but it sits in the heart of the national park
named after it, a forest land teeming with flora of many different
species.

The park’s main attraction is Bulusan Lake, around 2 kilometers
in circumference and 335 meters above sea level (masl). We had our lunch break here surrounded by
forest trees, shrubs and ferns, the green waters of the lake in view, and
cicadas chirping all around. Actually,
the park management is tempting visitors to conquer all three lakes in the
park: Bulusan, Aguingay, higher at 940 masl, and Blackbird’s, highest at 1,565 masl.

Young Bicolanos on their way to their favorite fishing sports by the bank of Bulusan Lake.

We could have gone trekking around the lake using the
pathway of concrete slabs flanked by thick green foliage from various flora, which
the guides said would not take an hour to complete. Kayaking on the placid
green waters was another cool option.

We trekked part of the way though by joining a group of
young men with fishing rods on their way to their favorite fishing spots. We found some men on small boats casting
their fishing nets a short distance away from the bank.

Fisherman paddles his boat to a spot where he will cast his net.

While waiting for the young men to boast of a squirming
catch on their lines, we spent some time with a honey collector nearby as he
extracted sweet syrup from beehive fragments.
He said that this is one of the things he does for a living: roaming
around the forest to smoke out beehives for the sweet honey.

Historical and
spiritual detours. Our quick Bicol trip gave us throwbacks to
history starting with our departure point: the Church of the Nuestra Señora
de Porteria (Our Lady of the Gate) on top of a hilltop in Daraga. This church is more than 200 years old, and
it was declared a Cultural Treasure by the National Museum in 2007 and a
Historical Landmark by the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCAA)
the following year.

Cagsaua ruins. Early this year, Albay province held Dos Siglo to commemorate the second centennial of the destructive Mayon eruption in 1814.

It has been painted with lime coating to protect the
exterior side from further erosion. The church
facade and bell tower are rich in sculptured ornamentations like saints and
other religious symbols, which are properly identified in the documentation of
the preservation project.

This antique church reminded us of the ruins at Cagsaua,
result of the violent eruption of Mayon on 01 February 1814. As told by the historical marker on the
ruins, the people of Cagsaua opted in July of that year to incorporate
themselves with Daraga. Hence, Cagsaua
today remains a part of Daraga. Early
this year, Albay celebrated Dos Siglo to commemorate the destructive volcanic
eruption two centuries ago.

Another candidate for declaration as heritage site is the
church of Barcelona, Sorsogon, which was
built in 1874. Across from it on the
other side of the road are two ruins of stone buildings--the presidencia and
the school—that date back to the Spanish colonial times. According to popular stories, Spaniards of yore gave the town that name to
keep alive their memory of their city of origin.

The centuries old Daraga Church, a National Cultural Treasure.

When we returned from Sorsogon, we revisited Guinobatan,
Albay to look for food items. In the search, two monuments caught our special
photographic attention: the Rizal
Monument at the town plaza park and the Christus Regnat (Christ the King)
monument facing the Church of the Assumption.

We found the design of the pedestals closely similar. The four women figures at the base of the
monuments gave us the thought that these two works could have been designed and
built by the same artist or group of artists.

Because of similarities in structure esp. with the four women figures, the Christ the King and Rizal monuments in Guinobatan appear to have been designed by the same artist or group of artists.

The standing allegorical women at the Christ monument are
named after the cardinal virtues of Justicia (justice), Fortaleza (courage),
Prudencia (prudence) and Templanza moderation. On the the hand, the four Rizal
women are seated. The three that we were able to discern symbolize the arts,
education and justice.

Culinary treats. The theme of the welcome arch of Sorsogon
province is seafoods symbolized by the crab, shrimp and mussel sculptures there. A big crab is also atop the rest area
building at Pepita Park, Sorsogon City.
Sad to say, there were no seafood meals during our dash through the
province.

A giant white rooster along the road in Irosin. Across the street is the San Pedro barangay hall with a statue of the saint in front of it.

There was also nothing spicy in the wedding/fiesta menu,
none of the traditional regional fare of laing
and the so-called Bicol Express.

The groom had a 100-kg pig butchered for the occasion,
which an all-male cooking brigade headed by the popular village chef
transformed into several dishes at the temporary kitchen in the backyard. There was chicken and ubod cooked in coconut milk but this was not an entree in the
menu. It was served for dinner, and this
was our first taste of this Sorsogon dish.

We watched closely the tutongan, where a live charcoal was embedded in the platter of
grated coconut to produce smoke from the burning portion. The set up was covered for some time so that
the grated coconut would acquire the smoky smell and flavour.

The grates were then mixed with the pig’s blood, filtered
out and pressed to extract the coconut oil. The diced pork meat was not sautéed
but went directly into the mix of blood and coconut oil for the cooking. Tutongan
sa dinuguan was truly a culinary delight, and we had several helpings of it
during the dinner.

Back in Albay, we had to hie off to Guinobatan for the
thumb-size longanisas of garlicky or
spicy red flavours. Several packets of
both flavours plus the pili nuts, sweetened and salted, made up our limited
airplane baggage for the customary pasalubong
for the family back home in Manila.